More and more high performance systems are being made in which information is conveyed in the form of optical signals. For this purpose, optical fibers have been developed that present ever increasing performance, and have ever increasing numbers of active optical components for emitting light and for receiving it. In particular, optical connectors have been developed that enable two bundles of optical fibers to be connected together or that enable a bundle of optical fibers to be connected to optical apparatus (an emitter, a receiver, an attenuator, a sensor, etc.).
Optical connectors are components which serve to provide relative and absolute positioning between the ends of optical fibers in a bundle of optical fibers in a manner that is very accurate. To obtain such very accurate positioning, optical connectors generally comprise a large number of parts that are machined with very great precision so as to obtain the required positioning for the ends of the optical fibers. This means that such connectors are relatively expensive to manufacture. This cost situation can be accepted when connectors form portions of relatively sophisticated systems which are themselves of relatively high cost.
However, in the context of less elaborate optical systems becoming more widespread, the cost of manufacturing optical connectors is becoming a critical point in the cost of such systems.
There thus exists a real need for optical connectors which, while still providing acceptable positioning for the ends of optical fibers, are of lower manufacturing cost and are thus compatible with manufacturing techniques that make mass production possible.